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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3296703" data-attributes="member: 143">Ah, I'm sure Dar would appreciate it being so simple...  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious    :]" data-shortname=":]" /> * * * * * Chapter 87DANGERS NEW AND OLDThe persistent mists, thinned but never fully dissipated by the breeze, swallowed the company from Camar up as they made their way deeper into the dell.  The oblong shapes of gravestones rose up out of the uneven earth all around them.  More than one grave looked as though it had been disturbed, recently.  “I say again, that this peripheral assault is foolish,” Valus said.  “You reported that you had a back way into the dungeon, via the bee tunnels.  We should strike deep at the heart of the enemy, and deliver a crushing blow against their full strength.”“We stick with the plan,” Dar said, without turning back. The ‘plan’ was largely Varo’s, and while Dar professed his support, he inwardly had misgivings.  In private discussion with him, Talen, Shay, and Tiros, the cleric had revealed new information about the Dungeon of Graves, and the likely place within where the cult of Orcus had taken Allera.  As always, Varo was more than a little vague about the source of his information, but on prompting from Tiros, acknowledged two sources: a mysterious book known as the Codex Thanara, and a direct commune with Dagos that he’d completed only shortly after he’d raised Dar from the dead.  Varo told them that there were two other temples to Orcus in the Dungeon of Graves, in addition to the one they’d pillaged, and that they would find Allera in the second, under the control of another high priest of the demon god.  “She will almost certainly be sacrificed to Orcus,” Varo had explained.  “I am not certain how much time we have, but I do know that we cannot waste any of it, if we hope to have a chance of stopping them.”“What are we doing talking, then,” Dar had growled.  The fighter had still been barely able to walk back then, but he’d propped himself up with his club, and had demanded horses, ready to ride out before the day was out.  Ultimately, they had delayed through that night, but were on the road from Camar by the time that the sun rose the next morning.  Riding hard, with ample remounts, they had eaten up the miles.  Dar had set pace at the head of the column, driving both himself and his horses.  At the end of the first day, he’d fallen from the saddle, unable to stand.  Only Varo’s intervention had given him the strength to rise the next morning, but once on the road his pace did not slacken.  Each day, as they’d drawn ever closer to Rappan Athuk, he’d gotten stronger, and when they had finally encountered the wandering band of trolls, Valor had put two of them down, the second after it had clawed out the throat of his horse, bearing them to the ground.  A structure rose up ahead of them out of the mists.  It was the mausoleum, warding the entrance to the Dungeon of Graves.“Watch for the guardians,” Varo said.  Talen and Shaylara had already strung their bows, and Zosimos had readied his wand of fireballs. “I thought you destroyed the green gargoyles the last time you were here?” Valus asked. “We did,” Dar said, not taking his eyes from the mausoleum as they slowly approached.  “But the black gems, their eyes, were gone from my bag, when I checked later.  They may have fallen out, or....”  He paused for a moment, letting the import of his words sink in.  “Assume nothing, about this place.”“There!” the elf warned, lifting his longbow.  He drew, aimed, and released in a single smooth motion.  Varo had enchanted a quantity of arrows with a greater magic weapon spell earlier that day, the enhanced missiles divided among the party’s archers.  The shaft knifed through the fog, flying over the mausoleum’s mantle before hitting something hard.    “What is it?  I do not see anything,” Valus said, clutching his holy symbol. “You’ll see them soon enough,” Dar said, holding Valor close by his side.  The sound of flapping wings announced the arrival of the guardians an instant before the green-skinned creatures materialized through the fog.  Again there were eight of them, the deadly green gargoyles that had so mauled the first cohort of the Doomed Bastards on their entry to the dungeon.  Their black eyes glittered in the poor light as they spread their wings and dove toward the companions.  A fireball exploded in mid-air, enveloping most of the gargoyles.  The blast did not destroy any of them outright, but a moment later an arrow hit one in the throat, exploding through its body and out the back.  It fell to the ground, exploding in a shower of debris as it hit.  Talen and Shay kept up their barrage as several of the gargoyles swerved toward them, their claws extended as they dove.  Another pair swung around in a wide arc that would bring them upon the small column from the rear, to attack the spellcasters.  Two gargoyles swept low and came at Dar, who held his ground and waited.  The first one slashed at him with a claw, gashing his arm just below the shoulder.  As the gargoyle landed, its foreclaws already extending toward his face, the second dove at his back.  Dar roared and brought his sword up and down in a powerful two-handed strike.  The blade hit the gargoyle on the side of the head and kept going, cleaving through its skull.  One of the black gem-eyes went flying across the blasted landscape, the other falling into the crumbling mass of its body.  Continuing his momentum, Dar spun around and tore into the second creature.  He clipped its left ring, shearing it off entirely.  The gargoyle shrieked and flopped to the ground.  It tried to claw at the warrior’s legs, but failed to tear through his greaves.  Snarling, Dar drove his sword down into its chest, finishing the creature off. His companions were doing almost as well.  One of the gargoyles swooping down toward Zosimos was blasted by five magic missiles and veered off course, finally coming down in front Marcus Valus.  The cleric was ready with his mace, and before the gargoyle could get into position to launch an effective attack, Valus crushed it with a powerful blow to the back of its skull. Zosimos came under attack from a second gargoyle, but the creature’s claws scratched harmlessly upon his stoneskin.  A few feet away, the elf had come under heavy attack from another of the creatures, but Malerase avoided the first swipes of its claws and fell back, continuing to fire arrows as he gave ground. On the far flank, Talen dropped his bow and drew his magical sword as a pair of gargoyles dove at him and Shay.  One smashed the side of his head with a claw, but his helmet absorbed most of the force of the blow.  His sword was much more effective, cutting deep into its body with several strokes.  It tried to take off again, only to take an arrow square in the center of its chest, destroying it.  The second gargoyle elected to go for the lightly armored archer rather than the fighter, but it found Shay to be an elusive target.  The scout easily kept her distance from the hopping creature, which finally found itself set upon by Talen from the side.  It spun on the captain, only to learn its mistake when Shay leapt back and drove her sword into its side.  Within seconds, this creature had joined the first in oblivion. And just like that, the battle was over.  Valus came to Zosimos’s aid, and the two put down the evoker’s foe even as Dar sundered the one fighting the elf.  The battle had lasted less than twenty seconds, and the companions had suffered only minor injuries in the brief exchange.  “All right,” Dar said, sliding Valor back into its sheath.  This time, he didn’t even bother to collect the gargoyles’ gemstone eyes, turning instead to the mausoleum doors. “Last time, they key was hidden in the base of that dwarf statue over there,” Varo said, pointing to the nearby landmark. “The key... I... remember...” the elf said, his hands shaking slightly as he held them slightly apart, mimicking the feel of the magical key. “They’re open,” Dar said, prodding at one of the doors warily with a gauntleted hand.  The heavy portal swung slightly open with a faint creak. “Be wary,” Varo said.  “The entire mausoleum is a giant and deadly trap.”“Knowing that, we are to just walk into it?” Valus asked. “Yeah, pretty much,” Dar said, working on the door in more earnest, and yanking the heavy metal portals open.  The metal hinges protested, but in a few seconds the way was open enough for them to make their way inside.  “Don’t worry, cleric, you’ll get used to the way we do things soon enough.”The mausoleum was empty, save for bones and scattered debris.  Some of the detritus was new, the remains of a party of soldiers sent by the late Lord Sobol to follow them into the dungeon.  Faded bloodstains could be seen on the floor, walls, and even the ceiling above.  The stone crypt in the middle of the room stood intact, the heavy lid lying in its usual place. “They replaced the stone plug,” Varo said, indicating the spot on the floor where the hidden shaft to the dungeons was located. Talen and Shay were working to wedge the doors open, but suddenly there was a loud grinding noise, and the entire mausoleum shook.  The huge doors, connected to some powerful mechanism deep within the surrounding stone, began to swing shut.  “I can’t stop them!” Talen said.  Shay could have leapt through narrowing opening before the doors slammed shut, but she took one look at Talen and held her ground. The floor began to vibrate. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the lid on the crypt toppled forward, revealing a quartet of black skeletons that rose up from within, their eyes blazing with an ugly red malevolence as they leapt out from cover and attacked.</blockquote>

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